A Beautiful Book

I have a confession to make. 

Any former English professors of mine can turn away their eyes for the next line or two. Even with my chronic reading habit and English background in school, I have never read Moby Dick. And even worse, (in some eyes) I have never even wanted to. Not even a little bit. I know what it is about, and I just haven't been motivated to pick it up. Ever. Well, until one day. . .

A few months ago I was perusing the website Fonts In Use, and came across an article about a small (short run) edition of Moby Dick. The article discusses the beautiful use of fonts and space in the layout of this edition of the book. The original Arion Press edition uses hand-set metal type and hand-made paper. It also includes many woodcut engravings, and the initial caps and titling was done in a font specifically created for this edition, named rather appropriately Leviathan. The article tells us that not surprisingly, this book won an award for being one of the "100 Most Beautiful Books of the Twentieth Century."

Well, needless to say, I suddenly wanted to read Moby Dick (well, not just the book, but this exact edition of the book). To whet your appetite, here's the first page image that Fonts In Use used with their article.

 Doesn't it just draw you in? I highly recommend you go over to the original article to see the other mouthwatering images of this beautiful book, so you can ooh and ah over them, too. Plus, Fonts In Use is just a fun website to visit. I particularly liked the article on the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

Now I have high expectations, and I will only read Moby Dick if I get my hands on a copy of this edition. Luckily for us little people, the University of California Press has reprinted this edition in a paperback format. While not using handmade paper or metal, hand-set type, they did keep the layout intact, and the price is a lot more affordable. So maybe some day I will eventually read Moby Dick.

An Online Resource for Creatives

I've been browsing around the website http://www.creativepro.com/.

It has some great resources, reviews, tips, tutorials, blogs, and some all around good info in topics such as fonts, graphics, photography, print, and web or mobile.

For example, in one article I learned about a cool InDesign feature called Quick Apply. It's easy to turn on and off, and it allows you to keep your hands on the keyboard instead of searching through menus for those features that don't have keyboard shortcuts (or for features that have keyboard shortcuts, but you just can't remember which key combination it is) (Here's the link for the article.) I think I'll be trying this one out.

There are articles on more than just InDesign. I also found some reviews on products I'd heard of but didn't really know much about, some articles on kerning and type that were informative, and even some free Photoshop brush downloads that were tempting.

But, just a warning, you could get sucked into browsing the site for more time than you expected.

2011 PIU Printer's Ride

On Wednesday, August 31st, the Printing Industries of Utah hosted their second annual Printer's Ride. Some folks from Lorraine Press attended, and here's their report.

Everyone first met up at the old paper mill at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon ready to ride. This is the site of the first paper mill in Utah that produced paper suitable for printing on. 

The second stop was at Intermountain Rigging and Heavyhaul. Here the group was shown equipment used to transport printing presses and other heavy equipment. The hydraulic lift in the photo below can hoist up to 400,000 tons!

Third on the ride was Rocky Mountain Recycling. Here the intrepid motorcyclists were given a tour and shown the large amounts of recyclables Rocky Mountain processes. In the picture below, you can see recycled paper and aluminum (plates and cans). The second picture below shows a carton of compressed Styrofoam. Each one of those blocks contains enough uncompressed Styrofoam to fill a train box car.

And then the fourth stop was at Graphic Ink. These talented people produce some of the inks that we at Lorraine Press put into our presses. Below, you'll see the Graphic Ink representative giving a tour, one of the mixing blades used to mix ink, and a mixer full of soon-to-be magenta ink.

The next set of photos shows some yellow ink being mixed in a mixing vat, and then being milled to further grind the particles in the ink substrate. 

Then the fifth stop was at Media One. This is the place where our local papers are printed. To help you get the scale of this place, here's a model of one of their presses. I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but there are to-scale little men on the black platform in the center of the model. This press takes up a lot of room.

The newspapers come off of this press cut, folded, and ready to go out. Talk about automation! The photo below shows some of their shop floor. And the one below that shows the ingenious system of carrying the finished newspapers across the shop. Pretty neat stuff.

And last, but not least, the riders took sustenance at the Bohemian Brewery and Grill. 

It was an interesting, informative, and fun ride. Everyone is invited to attend next year's Ride, so if you are interested, be sure to keep an eye out for next year's Printers Ride on the PIU events calendar.

Happiness Day at Lorraine Press

Some calendars marked Monday, August 8th, as Happiness Day. So we at Lorraine Press decided to celebrate! Now, the irony of celebrating Happiness Day on the same day that the Dow tanked wasn't lost on us. But as one very optimistic employee said, "Hey, none of us are retiring tomorrow, and plus, everything just went on sale!" So there was a bright side to Monday.

We celebrated our own happiness by having a banana split/ice cream social. Everyone was able to create their own individual momentary happiness with the caloric intake of their choosing.

We also decided to try to increase other people's happiness by holding a canned food drive to donate to the Utah Food Bank.

And lastly, we held a contest for everyone to vote for the "Happiest Lorraine Press Employee." After counting all the votes, there turned out to be two happiest employees. A tie between our cheery Secretary and our upbeat Prepress Supervisor. Congratulations to the both of them! They each won a pair of movie tickets.

We hope that your Monday had moments of happiness, too! If so, share them with us by commenting to this post.

A Tour of the Post Office

Last week, courtesy of the Printing Industries of Utah, a group of designers and printers were able to tour behind the scenes at the Post Office Sorting Center in Salt Lake City. Several of us from Lorraine Press went along to see what exactly goes on behind the scenes.

We were taken through the process a letter experiences between a mailbox and its final destination. Our tour started off in the delivery bay where mail carriers bring back the mail they have collected during their routes. Then the fun started.

A letter is first individually examined by a sorting machine. No matter how the letter went into the machine (upside down, backwards, etc.), a sensor can find the stamp and then tumble the letter through the machine to correctly place the address in front of the OCR software, so the OCR software can read the address. As if that wasn't cool enough, the OCR software can correctly identify the addressee (compared to a database of all mailing addresses in the United States) within 3 seconds over 90% of the time.

Then letters are sorted into categories. If the letter stays in Utah, it goes to one machine that then sorts it to the Utah Post Office that it belongs to. If the letter is to leave Utah, it goes to a different sorting machine. If the letter goes to some one on the Move/Forwarding database, it goes to a different area. The whole system of sorters and holding areas and organization of mail was astounding. There were even little trains overhead carrying bins of mail to the correct place, and fun twirly slides for the bins to slide down to the correct machine. The entire operation is a miracle in organization and computerization.

All mail is eventually moved from that first incoming bay, to the other side of the building where trucks are waiting to deliver mail to its destination, whether that be a local post office branch or the airport. By that time, it is organized not only by mail carrier route, but also in the order of the houses/addresses within that route.

The tour was entertaining, but also educational. The reasons behind the regulations on addressing mail, especially when dealing with mass mailings became clear when one could actually see the machines that were "reading" the addresses. We saw letters of all sizes being sorted, as well as larger flats. The new regulations of the locations of the address on magazines and large envelopes allow the machine locate the address and then sort it. The Post Office saves large amounts of money when the machines are able to handle the mail.

Overall it was a great tour, and we learned a lot. Thank you to the USPS employees who took time out of their day to show us around!

Gadget Tips You May Not Know

Every once in awhile, I come across a simple little tip or trick that makes life so much easier. Sometimes it involves cleaning something in my house or caring for my yard, something that had taken me tedious hours before, and I just didn't know that someone made a gadget or tool or product that would take care of my problem in seconds.

One of the most recent times involved replacing my car's dead battery. I struggled for a long time trying to get it out, but it just wouldn't budge. I finally called my Dad to ask if he would come help. It turns out that he has a tool especially for doing what I was trying to do that I had no idea even existed. It took him seconds to get the battery removed and replaced. (Thanks Dad!)

Many times, when I come across something new like that, I wonder what other things there are in the world that I don't yet know about. What other holes in my knowledge are there?

Apparently, I am not the only one this happens to. David Pogue, the author of a helpful article from the New York Times, titled "Ins and Outs of Using Gadgetry," writes about simple "how to" stuff for your electronic gadgets that you may have missed in your comings and goings.

He poses the question, "How is the average person supposed to know the essentials of their phones, cameras and computers? There's no government leaflet, no mandatory middle-school class, no state agency that teaches you some core curriculum. Instead, we muddle along, picking up scattershot techniques as we go."

Pogue includes some simple tips involving cellphones, cameras, app phones, web stuff, editing text on a computer, and even some Mac tips. He thinks it is likely that there is going to be something on his list of tips to which you'll say, "I didn't know that!"

So click through to this article and read through Pogue's list. And even if you don't learn something new, you can still pat yourself on the back, knowing that you are very media savvy in this ever-changing world.

Print in the News - Liberty Stamp Kerfuffle

According to an article in the New York Times, the U.S. Postal Service has printed a new stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty, but not the one in New York Harbor. Unbeknownst to the USPS, the Statue of Liberty image they chose from some stock photography is of the statue that stands outside the New York-New York Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kudos to the stamp collector and avid Statue of Liberty fan who noticed the mix up. 

Before you run out and stock up on this philatelic error, the USPS is not recalling this one. It is simply changing the information about the stamp. So, while this is slightly embarrassing, it isn't as bad as the erroneous stamp that said the Grand Canyon is in Colorado, right?

It just goes to show that a little background checking never hurts.

An Online Collection of Symbols

I have found an interesting collection of symbols online. The website is The Noun Project.

The site specializes in "sharing, celebrating, and enhancing the world's visual language." The symbols on this site are downloadable, high quality, and in the public domain. So the next time you are asked to create a "Caution, Slippery When Icy" sign for a company's parking lot, you can now find the perfect symbol to help illustrate it.

The envelope, please . . .

The moments breathlessly awaited by millions watching the Oscars just became a little more beautiful. The envelope containing the winners of the Oscar categories has been redesigned by Marc Friedland.

The envelopes used to be plain, white, and ordinary. But now they are iridescent gold paper with watermarks of images of Oscar, lined with red paper embossed with gold Oscars. The new envelopes are also designed to open easily to relieve our anticipation as quickly as possible. Here's the link to the news story.

Pantone's Color of the Year

Tired of slushy, gray winter days? Pantone has a solution for you:

This is bright and vibrant pink is Pantone's new color of the year for 2011. They are recommending it for use in fashion, home decor, and in your wallet. A Pantone Visa Card is available in the color of the year:

Also available for download on the Pantone website are sample color palettes which use honeysuckle with coordinating colors. There's no end to the bubblegum pink possibilities!

“In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going – perfect to ward off the blues,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Honeysuckle derives its positive qualities from a powerful bond to its mother color red, the most physical, viscerally alive hue in the spectrum.” For Pantone's press release on its color of the year, click here.

Can't get enough of Pantone's colors? Well, on your next jaunt to Belgium be sure to stop by the Pantone Hotel.

The "hotel of colors" uses color in its room design to evoke certain emotions like "vibrant," "cheerful," or "daring." Plus, a color consultant is available to help you choose the best color for your brand. And don't forget while you are there to stop by the Pantone Lounge, where you can choose between drinks named Pink Champagne PANTONE 12-1107, Lemon Drop PANTONE 12-0736 or Daiquiri Green 12-0435.

Not sure that pink is your thing, and you don't have a trip planned to Belgium anytime soon? That's okay, you can still request any Pantone color with your print order at Lorraine Press. We custom mix each color on-site in our ink lab with specific quality controls in place. Whether bubblegum pink or any other color, we'll make sure you are happy with how your color of the day turns out.